I got a rare issue. Kotor(1) keeps crashing after the Hawk Escapes the Leviathan. I fight and destroy the fighters just fine, but when I'm ready to go to whatever the next animated sequence is (I assume its jump to Lightspeed), I'm kicked out of the game and I'm back at my desktop.

I turned off sound and movies--still no luck. Whatever the problem is, it happens when the fighter battle is finished and you are supposed to go back to the Ebon Hawk. With sound and movies off, the Hawk starts loading (it doesn't get that far with them on) but the entire program just crashes and kicks me back to my desktop.

This issue welcomes me dispite how old my save was, even the one save I did right before getting the Starforge on Manaan (my third starmap), and thats even before I entered the Leviathan in the first place. (Which is right after Manaan for me).

Is there any workaround this?

I did get a tip to temporary fix this, I have to save before I walk into the Hangar on the Leviathan, and then use a save-editor to "warp" my save location to another planet. However, the KSE didn't have that option as far as I can tell (ver. 3.3.3)

Specs in code, Sorry to report this spec is before I tried updating me nVidia drivers (That didn't work either)

I noticed you have AA and AF maxed. Might be worth switching those off altogether. I know with my rig it just doesn't play nice with them enabled. Not that I think they would cause a crash, but can't hurt to try.

You might also want to zip up your save file and upload it to something like Rapidshare and then post the link. Someone else can try it on their machine and see if they can replicate the bug or at least land on the final planet and make a new save for you.

But alas, AA and/or AF didn't help at all, I tried every setting.
However, I will share my savegame now, in hope that someone can bypass this bug for me.

So to anyone out there, please download my savefile, and launch KOTOR and load my game.
Just walk inside the Hanger as Carth, then defend the Ebon Hawk from the fighters, once those fighters are dead, two things will happen...
1, You get the same accursed bug and KOTOR crashes to desktop.
OR
2. You actually jump to hyperspace and successfully land.
In the event of option 2. I beg of you, please save, and resubmit the savegame for me to download.
I'll be in forever gratitude to anyone that can assist me on this matter.

It's extreme annoying to have played 18h+, only to NEVER be able to finish.
Now, the downloadlink:

OK well I didn't get any crashes, but there were some seriously long pauses with just a black screen between the end of a Bink movie and loading a cutscene/game level. I've never encountered that before in either K1 or TSL. Something is going on that the game doesn't like it would seem and it's in the save file.

You missed out on a cutscene between jumping to hyperspace and landing on the next planet. It's where you and Carth join the others and discuss your true identity. It's nothing major seeing as you obviously saw the more important cutscene with Malak, but there are a couple of options for either LS or DS. Might cap it and put it on YouTube later if I get the chance.

Despite the danger of digging up one of the most known cliche to man.
It wasn't luck. It was the Force

I've now completed KOTOR yet again thanks to your help DarthParametric. I did however encounter that bug again, right when between the cutscene on the Ebon Hawk, just as you've crashlanded on the Star Forge planet, but second time loading the a save, I did get past it.

And I do support your "corrupt savefile" theory. When searching for the 4th Starmap on Korriban, HK-47 suddenly started acting strange, around the time we went into the tomb with the droidarmy standing idle on a bridge. Everytime I cross that bridge, he'd lock up. No matter what save I used.
After that bridge, he didn't follow me around when he was in my party, nor was I able to interact with him. Not on the planet, not on the Ebon Hawk infact, he remained an unmovable, uninteractive partymember (exept when I controled him directly) to the end of the game...
Sad, because HK-47 is without doubt the most sinister droid know to man

I have the same problem can anybody go thru the part with my save please?

I had the same problem. I had a item I had given myself through an editor, when I unequipped it the game didn't crash. Also I had been going through the last door using Carth and not the main character. I guess one of those fixed it.

I could tell it was different when I saw Carth and the main character running to the ship to escape, before I had only seen the main character. Also, removing the movies folder skipped the movies but it still crashed.

Hope this helps anyone searching for a crash after Leviathan escape or the 2nd space battle after the Malek fight / battle encounter when Bastila is captured, etc etc key word and so on.